The role of supplier performance in building customer trust and loyalty: A cross-country examination

Building trust in buyer–seller relationships is a focal issue in relationship marketing. However, there are mixed results concerning the performance outcomes of trust. Also, no attention has been given to linking supplier performance aspects to the development of trusting relationships. In this study we propose a conceptual model of supplier performance drivers and customer loyalty consequences of trust in supplier–organizational customer relationships. We test the model relationships using data from three different countries, namely, France, Hungary, and the U.K., in an effort to assess the extent to which the development and outcomes of trust are consistent across different countries. The results suggest that supplier performance in product quality and sales service quality is conducive to trust building across all three countries. Supplier performance in technical repair service support enhances trust in the market contexts of France and Hungary, but has no significant effect in the case of the U.K. Nonetheless, supplier performance in complaint handling has a positive effect on trust in the U.K. and French contexts, but no link is established in the context of Hungary. Further, the results show that trust enhances customer loyalty across all countries. Moreover, we find that firm size negatively moderates the trust–loyalty relationship in all the countries, with this link being not significant among larger firms in France and Hungary. The results have important theoretical and practical implications for international relationship marketing.     

Priorities when selecting business partners for service innovation: The contingency role of product innovation

Firms increasingly engage in business-to-business cooperation to develop relevant innovations. Scholars have shown that firms can improve service innovation either by cooperating with suppliers or by cooperating with competitors. However, there is a dearth of research examining the relative importance of cooperating with suppliers and competitors to improve service innovation, and how this relative importance depends on embracing product innovation. Based on a cross-industry sample of 16,062 Spanish firms, this article addresses these research gaps, finding that firms can benefit from cooperating with both suppliers and competitors to boost service innovation, without prioritizing either. However, this article also shows that, if firms embrace product innovation, they should prioritize cooperating with competitors to boost service innovation.     

A service science perspective on business model innovation

Using four basic principles of service science, we systematically explore value-proposition design as one type of business model innovation. Service science combines organization and human understanding with business and technological understanding to categorize and explain service systems, including how they interact and evolve to cocreate value. Our goal is to apply a scientific approach to advance design and innovation in service systems. Our foundation is service-dominant logic, which provides perspective, vocabulary, and assumptions on which to build a theory. Our basic theoretical construct is the service system, entities that are dynamic configurations of four kinds of resources. Our core principles center on the way value is computed within and among entities, how interaction is based on access to resources and their capabilities, and on how value computation and interaction depend on symbol processing and language guided by mutually agreed-to value propositions. In this context, service science can inform and accelerate value-proposition design by systematizing the search for adaptive advantages that improve existing offerings, create new offerings, or reconfigure the value-creating ecosystem.     

Projective customer competence: Projecting future customer needs that drive innovation performance

Projective customer competence is the ability of a product development organization to both understand as well as shape the future needs of customers. To conceptualize this competence and establish its antecedents and performance implications, we draw upon the literature on inter-organizational relationships and innovation. Based on survey data from managers involved with business to business product development, validated with secondary financial data and in-depth interviews, we establish measurement properties for projective customer competence and demonstrate that this competence develops through customer relationships characterized by relational embeddedness, knowledge redundancy and interactivity. Projective customer competence is also shown to have positive implications for both innovativeness and financial performance. Surprisingly, relational embeddedness is shown to be the strongest predictor of projective customer competence, and, while knowledge redundancy helps build projective customer competence, it also has a negative impact on innovativeness.     

Supplier traits for better customer firm innovation performance

Previous research on embedded ties with suppliers in an innovation context has ignored the need for customer firms to assess and select suppliers on the basis of market orientation strategies and relationship marketing attributes. To address this void, this study investigates the effects of suppliers' downstream customer orientation and supplier-customer homophily (i.e., similarity of the supplier and the customer) on the customers' innovation performance. Data pertaining to new product development projects with contributions from supplier firms was collected on both sides of the supplier-customer dyad. The analysis shows that downstream customer orientation and supplier-customer homophily have a significant impact on the customer firms' new product efficiency (i.e., project cost and project speed) and new product effectiveness (i.e., innovativeness), which in turn positively influence new product performance in terms of profitability, market share, and growth.     

知识密集型服务业的知识转移与创新

在详细分析集群企业间知识转移的方式、路径的基础上,提炼出知识转移过程的概念模型,并进一步讨论知识转移是如何推动创新活动的。     

A rolling stone gathers no moss: the effect of customers' perceived business model innovativeness on customer value co‐creation behavior and customer satisfaction in the service sector

Both researchers and practitioners have been focusing extensively on business model innovation, as it has shown to positively influence business performance. Although the effect of business model innovativeness on customer behavior might be an important mediator between business model innovation and business performance, it has not yet been analyzed. In line with recent calls to consider the customer side in business model innovation research, our paper addresses this problem by studying the influence of customers' perceived business model innovativeness (CPBMI) on customer satisfaction and customer value co‐creation behavior in the service sector. We, therefore, emphasize customers' perceptions and reactions to business model changes. Relying on data from a large‐scale survey of restaurant customers, we find that perceived value creation innovativeness and value proposition innovativeness positively affect customer satisfaction and customer value co‐creation behavior. In addition, we identify a significant indirect effect of CPBMI on customer satisfaction via customer value co‐creation behavior. Our findings allow deriving concrete implications for both researchers and practitioners.     

Product–service innovation and performance: the role of collaborative partnerships and R&D intensity

Treating the intersection of the strategic partnerships, R&D intensity and servitisation literatures, this study explores empirically whether external collaborative service development and provision and industrial R&D intensity help to unpack the complex relation between product–service innovation (servitisation) and performance. We argue that manufacturing firms implementing services benefit from strategic partnerships with Knowledge‐Intensive Business Service (KIBS) firms. KIBS partnering provides opportunities for downsizing, externalising risks and sharing knowledge. Additionally, manufacturers in R&D‐intensive industries are more likely to benefit from implementing service provision than firms in other sectors because of industry dynamics and reduced customer uncertainty. The study surveys executives in 370 large manufacturers worldwide. Results reinforce the importance of concentric strategic partnerships to successful product–service innovation in high R&D industries.     

Understanding the service infusion process as a business model reconfiguration

This study conceptualizes service infusion as a business model reconfiguration by using a process perspective. Service infusion is therefore understood as a process affecting the business model dimensions of transaction content, structure, and governance. The service-related reconfiguration of the business model is explained by underlying knowledge conversion mechanisms, which provide insights into the development of reconfiguration capacities as important enablers for business model change. Furthermore, this study introduces the concept of service defusion as an important counterpart to service infusion. Both concepts together are found to fully capture firms' strategic options with respect to their service offering components (transaction content), their engagement with, and disengagement from, important business partners (transaction structure), and also their interactions with these important business partners (transaction governance). The conceptually derived understanding of the service infusion process and mechanisms are exemplified via a multi-actor longitudinal illustrative case study. A conceptual grounding for understanding service infusion processes for further theory and concept development is provided, and managers gain an understanding of how to effectively manage the processes underlying service-related business model reconfigurations.     

Determinants of customer loyalty in the wireless telecommunications industry

This paper reports the results of research investigating the determinants of the propensity to switch wireless service providers. A model generated from the data rather than from a priori theory is presented, and it is found to uphold the strong relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty exhibited in prior studies. In sharp contrast to the prevailing industry practice of ‘locking in’ customers by means of restrictive contracts, this research suggests that wireless service providers are better off improving customer satisfaction in order to minimize customer defection. This would imply shifting scarce resources to customer retention through improved service, saving costs of expensive customer acquisition campaigns. The paper also proposes two methodological innovations. First, the research employs the ‘Tetrad methodology’ as an exploratory technique prior to building a Structural Equation Model (SEM) making it possible to identify drivers of loyalty—direct or indirect—when it might not be known a priori what these drivers might be. Secondly, the paper proposes an approach to estimating moderator effects on the relationship between satisfaction and customer loyalty.     

The effects of customer justice perception and affect on customer citizenship behavior and customer dysfunctional behavior

This research investigates whether customer justice perception influences affect and, in turn, customer citizenship behavior and customer dysfunctional behavior. Drawing on the social exchange theory and frustration-aggression theory, this paper argues that distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice influence positive affect as well as negative affect. Furthermore, this study argues that positive affect influences customer citizenship behavior, while negative affect influences customer dysfunctional behavior. To test these relationships, the present study uses data from 209 executive-MBA students and 68 buyer companies. The results of the structural equation analysis reveal that most of these hypotheses are supported. Following a discussion of the results, research limitations and directions for future research are offered.     

The roles of service encounters, service value, and job satisfaction in achieving customer satisfaction in business relationships

Along with variables like the service process, perceived service value and customer satisfaction, job satisfaction of service employees plays a vital role in customer evaluation of service result. However, there has been little in-depth research into the nature of this relation, in particular in the context of B2B relations. In the sphere of an organization providing financial intermediation services to the banking sector and on the basis of a literature review, hypotheses are developed which establish the mediator role of service value and the moderator role of job satisfaction of service employees when delimiting customer satisfaction. Reliability and validity analysis give satisfactory results and our conclusions establish firstly that service encounter directly and significantly affects perceived service value which is the final antecedent to customer satisfaction and secondly, that the level of employment satisfaction moderates its effect on service value.     

Customer collaboration,service firms' diversification and innovation performance

To sustain competitive advantage, service firms must adapt to the market environment, often by means of diversification and innovation. While extensive research has focussed on the role of customer collaboration in service firm innovation performance, fewer studies have examined the role of firm diversification in this relationship. This study draws on the resource-based view and dynamic capability literature to explore relationships between customer collaboration, diversification and innovation performance of service firms. A conceptual framework was developed and tested using a survey of 156 mining equipment, technology and services (METS) firms in South Australia, and case studies. The findings indicate that service and market diversification mediate the relationship between customer collaboration and innovation performance. Importantly, our findings demonstrate that customer collaboration has no direct effect on the innovation performance of service firms. The research helps practitioners and policymakers to understand the importance of enhancing collaboration across supply chains to build diversified and resilient to downturns in traditional sectors service economies.     

Opportunity recognition and SME performance: the mediating effect of business model innovation

Opportunity recognition is vital for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), but SMEs face challenges in capturing recognized opportunities. Given that opportunity recognition does not automatically lead to higher SME performance and that SMEs need to take appropriate actions to exploit recognized opportunities to achieve better performance, it is imperative to explore the mediators that enable SMEs to translate opportunity recognition into higher performance. This study proposes that business model innovation may be a key conduit through which opportunity recognition affects SME performance. Based on a dataset of 155 SMEs, we find that the positive relationship between opportunity recognition and SME performance is mediated by business model innovation. These findings not only aid SMEs in accomplishing the performance effect of opportunity recognition, but also provide some insights into the implications of business model innovation.     

Third-party organization endorsement impacts on perceived value and B2B customer loyalty

This research examines how unobservable product quality and information value can be signaled by third-party organization (TPO) endorsement. Furthermore, it explores how TPO endorsement can, in B2B settings, function as an efficient communication tool as well as branding strategy. This study analyzes the following four components: the relationship between expertise and trustworthiness of TPO endorsement, the influence of TPO endorsement on customer firms' perceived value, how perceived value can impact B2B customer loyalty, and how the relationship between TPO endorsement and perceived value is moderated by the parasocial relationship defined as one-sided but enduring relationship between media personae and B2B customers. Collecting data using a survey, the research team gathered a total of 273 usable responses. To examine the hypothesized relationships among variables, researchers applied structural equation modelling. The results show a positive association between the expertise and trustworthiness of a TPO endorsement, and that these characteristics of TPO endorsement positively affect perceived value. A positive association is also found between perceived value and B2B customer loyalty, while the parasocial relationship does moderate the relationship between TPO endorsement and perceived value.     

The effect of social conflict on relationship loyalty in business markets

This study examines the impact of perceived social conflict on existing buyer-seller relationships. The results indicate that as the level of social conflict increases, perceptions about the loyalty of the relationship decrease. Perceived importance of the relationship had no impact on conflict or relationship loyalty. Ramifications of these findings for selling, sales management, and sales training are discussed.     

Roles, role performance, and radical innovation competences

Despite the importance of radical innovations (RI), few firms have the capability to develop such innovations internally; success is increasingly linked with relationships and networks. However, the way(s) in which relationships and networks support RI is less clear. Successfully launching RIs requires the development of four distinctive competences; discovery, incubation, acceleration and commercialization. This paper examines how networks support the development of RIs, focusing on when and how network partners become involved and how their role performances support the development of the four competences. The study context is the automotive industry, which is heavily dependent upon RI and complex interrelationships. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with network participants involved in developing several RIs. Five task-oriented and three network-oriented roles are uncovered and the performance of these roles supports the development of different competences, with some roles being exclusively connected with particular competences and others supporting several competences. Focusing on role performance offers a useful means for distinguishing between acontextual actors, and the activities and resources they bring. In doing so, the paper enhances understanding of the links between network participants, role performances and the development of RI competences, and identifies a number of important implications for theory and practice.     

The external effect of marketing accountability in business relationships: Exploring the role of customer perceived value

This paper explores where and how marketing accountability of a supplier meets customer perceived value in a business relationship setting. If the supplier's firm implements marketing accountability processes, marketing activities are improved, as well as the communication of the value proposition to customers. The supplier's value proposition is in turn reflected through the creation of superior customer perceived value, which triggers attitudinal and behavioral value outcomes. Hence, the marketing accountability of the supplier, through its external manifestation with customers, ultimately influences the supplier's financial results. The aim of the paper is to discuss the external effect of marketing accountability in a business relationship context, which is often suppressed by the prevailing focus on the internal manifestations of marketing accountability, or the inside-out approach. As marketing accountability is an evolving field, bibliometric co-citation analysis is carried out to gain a better understanding of the marketing accountability's domain and scope. On the grounds of the relationship marketing theory and resource-based view, qualitative research was carried out and insights from interviews with marketing managers from different industries were analyzed. The paper concludes by suggesting the operationalization of the marketing accountability construct and pointing out the need for a multilevel and dyadic design of further empirical studies for testing the proposed external effect of marketing accountability.     

Measuring business model innovation: conceptualization,scale development,and proof of performance

Business model innovation is a topic that has received much attention from academia as well as from business practice. After extensive research on the definition and conceptualization of the concept and publication of many case-based results, recently scholars have been calling for more generalizable results, large-scale investigations and greater empirical sophistication. Despite the great importance of measuring business model innovation for various purposes, a validated measurement scale is still not available. I fill this gap by systematically developing a new scale for business model innovation. I follow a rigorous scale development approach to ensure validity and reliability. Specifically, I collected two large-scale samples of 126 and 232 firms to specify and assess the scale. As a result, I provide a hierarchical three-level scale for measuring business model innovation. At the first level, 41 reflective items are provided to measure ten subconstructs of business model innovation. These can be used as formative measures of three dimensions of business model innovation at the second level, namely value creation innovation, value proposition innovation and value capture innovation. At the third level, these three dimensions form the metaconstruct of business model innovation.     

Customer value anticipation, customer satisfaction and loyalty: An empirical examination

A service-dominant logic by definition is inherently customer oriented and relational, reflecting deeper and more complex connections between suppliers and customers. The service mindset driving increased collaboration enables suppliers to have deeper insights to what customers' value. Customer value perceptions are dynamic, sometimes in constant flux, necessitating anticipatory capabilities on the part of suppliers. Yet, there is a notable lack of discussion about customer value anticipation and related empirical evidence of whether or not customers care if suppliers anticipate what they value. The authors report on two survey studies that test using structural equation modeling the notion that suppliers good at anticipating what customers will value realize higher customer satisfaction and loyalty. Understanding this relationship is critical for marketing managers wrestling with allocation of limited resources. We find that customer value anticipation is a strong driver of satisfaction and loyalty, with satisfaction acting as a mediator for loyalty.